Killeen man dies in Friday crash

20-year-old man died in this 2001 Mazda sedan.
Reporter/Mike Brown A 20-year-old Killeen man became the first traffic fatality inside the Rockdale city limits in almost seven years late Friday.

Danzell Hickman was pronounced dead on arrival at Richards Memorial Hospital by Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Gary Northcott about 11 p.m., just minutes after a 10:41 p.m. car-truck collision at the US 77-US 79 intersection near the eastern city limits.

Rockdale Police Ofc. Brandon Tess, who investigated, said Hickman’s 2001 Mazda was at the top of the US 79-77 on ramp, attempting to turn left (north) onto US 77 when it was in collision with a 2003 International truck rig, driven by 51-year-old Jerome Kaska of La Grange.

Tess said the Mazda failed to yield right of way to the truck, which was traveling southbound on US 77.

Hickman, who was wearing his seat belt, was removed from the vehicle by Rockdale volunteer firefighters and taken to Richards Memorial by an AMR ambulance crew.

Tess said the truck driver was not injured.

Vehicle damages were termed extensive.

BAD YEAR—Friday’s traffic fatality is the first inside the Rockdale city limits since Oct. 4, 2005, when a 77-year-old

Rockdale woman was run over by her own car as she exited it in a super market parking lot.

It was the third Rockdale fatality in a period of just over two weeks in the fall of 2005.

On Sept. 22 of that year an elderly

Milano couple was killed in a twovehicle collision on US 77, just a few hundred feet from the site of Friday’s fatality.

That crash occurred during the massive traffic jam produced by Hurricane Rita, which virtually turned

Milam County highways into parking lots.

There were actually four highway fatalities inside the Rockdale city limits in 2005.

On Feb. 11 of that year, a 76-year old Rockdale man died when his pickup collided with a delivery truck at the intersection of Wilcox Street and Cameron Avenue (FM 487 and US 79).